TERA is infamous for its horrendously repetitive questing system that can take weeks for casual/newbie players so long to get through. While I highly encourage newbies to experience the game for how it was meant to be played (leveling-wise), most folks would rather get to endgame as soon as humanly possible, veteran or not. This guide aims to help new and intermediate players with a speedy leveling through mob-grinding with information gathered from varying sources that include my own experiences leveling multiple characters of different roles. This guide is partially representative of my own stream of play that I finish within 2-3 cumulative days.
– First off, mob-grinding involves mass-pulling mobs and then aoe-ing them down as quickly as possible, and then moving on to the next pack or waiting for their respawns, with even some pulls able to give way more XP than multiple quest turn-ins for about 10-15 seconds of work. It defeats the purpose of earning XP in the shortest possible time if you are only capable of killing mobs one by one. Gear yourself appropriately to pull this off with the proper spot, over-level yourself a little bit more, or just learn to play your class properly. If you can do none of these, it might be better to quest normally to learn the ropes.
– Most new players make the mistake of downplaying the significance of crystals, choosing to learn about them instead at endgame. Make no mistake, equipping the right crystals for your class can make this significantly easier. There are different sorts of crystal set ups that fit specific classes, but, when in doubt, go for 1 Fine Carving (for flat crit rate) and 3 Fine Pounding (increased damage to ALL monsters) dps crystals for your weapon, and all Fine Hardy crystals for your armor. Update them accordingly as you level.
– Obviously, DPS classes will be far easier to level than Tanks and Healers. I am currently unaware of any sorts of gimmicks for solo non-DPS classes to hasten the killing of mobs as I have always taken a leveling partner.
– Make sure to pack along a lot of 100% XP boosts or have Elite Status for the free and constant XP increase not only for killing monsters, but also for double the quest XP turn in for those incidental ones you can finish while grinding mobs.
– When certain grind spots are overrun by other players, remember that you can actually switch channels in TERA for a completely different (and hopefully empty) area. Even if there aren’t any players, you can use multiple channels to your advantage by wiping out all mobs in one area and then jumping to another, switching back and forth without having to wait for respawns.
– PvP is never off the table. If you like playing it, go for the Corsair’s Stronghold daily as it nets you great XP at any level. This is true to regular questing as well, for there are many quests that do give great amounts of XP for little effort, so go ahead and pick up what you can.
– There are big XP penalties when fighting mobs of higher levels. Grinding while overleveled usually yields no issue, but being underleveled yields no advantages at all. Not only is it more difficult to defeat a higher leveled mob due to the game’s odd way of treating stats, but it also gives less experience. If anything, make it a rule to be at most only 2 levels below your target.
– Remember that there are XP penalties as well when partying with people. This is because the XP is divided equally among party members. As DPS, stay solo, but as a tank or healer, it is preferable to level with a partner.
– When you claim a spot, you freakin claim it. There’s no real assurance that other players won’t meddle with your farming rhythm, but aggroing and decimating mobs in a speedy and aggressive fashion is enough of a display to deter them from doing so. For long level ranges, like that of 50-58, make sure you have in your inventory all the future gear that you could wear as you level, mana and health pots, and all other sorts of amenities so that you do not need to leave your spot. Believe me; once you turn your back on it, be prepared to lose it.
Level normally because there isn’t anything significant enough that outspeeds questing at this point. If you do find something more worthwhile, then, by all means, go right ahead.
Northwest of Lumbertown is Bulwark Camp located in Oblivion Woods. Further west from that area is a thicket of Devan Mobs that respawn quickly and provide a great amount of XP. Remember that this spot is extremely popular so expect many others to be farming there as well. Fortunately, the Lumbertown Area has a lot of channels to choose from.
Further northwest is the Vanguard Outpost and northeast of that is another forest of Devan mobs for you to destroy. The spot is easily found near the NPC hiding behind the bushes. He gives a couple of quests that can be done in conjunction while farming the mobs. This spot also has a boss that gives a lot of XP for every kill and drops a Hunter’s Boon buff that gives 3% more XP for the next 3 minutes with other kills, and it respawns within a minute and a half of its death.
South of Crescentia, at the eastern end of Valley of Titans, almost opposite of Echo Ranch, there is a large Gutrend encampment that hold nice clumps of fast-respawning Gutrend mobs at level 19. Head for this area if it so happens that the Devan mob spots are overrun by gunners or if you merely want a change of scenery.
At level 20, you’ll be eligible to run the first dungeon in TERA, Bastion of Lok. Each run gives an awesome amount of XP from the insane amount of mobs within the dungeon. Not only that, but there are dungeon quests that you automatically obtain within, most of which are repeatable and can net you multiple turn-ins to the NPCs a bit south of the dungeon’s entrance at the Bestial Vale. It is the easiest dungeon (and one of the fastest) you will ever encounter and I advise you run this until you are no longer eligible for very fast levels. If you’re a tank, you won’t have a problem at all getting into a a group via instance matching, but it takes a little bit longer for healers, but it isn’t too cumbersome for them. For DPS, you could simply wait for the queue to pop or solo the dungeon as it is easily doable by learned players with a +9 avatar weapon and decent gear. The dungeon is at its easiest to solo at level 22.
At the most northeastern part of Oblivion Woods, just south of the entrance to the Bastion of Lok, there are Ghillies that can be farmed for experience, but it is far more effective to farm basilisks instead. Those BAMs are incredibly easy to solo and give great amounts of XP.
Near the Southern end of the Celestial Hills, located near a non-fast-travelable camp, is an area with plenty of Kumas that should serve as your next grind spot. Some suggest to also take on the Nagas, but I found that they, on certain classes, can be counterproductive on account of their stupid three-leap move that marks for a lot of downtime for damaging them, not to mention hitting obnoxiously hard. Kumas give relatively the same amount of XP anyway and move far less, especially at the beginning of the engagement where they sit still while you wail on them with your strongest attacks.
Travelling to Poporia, West of Popolion and just South of Camp Retribution, the spot has a good number of Castanic Recruits and Amani Recruits roam around the area and respawn just quickly enough to farm at a decent rate. It is a dull replacement for farming Kumas, but if you feel that you can’t quite down them fast enough to be profitable, keep dying for some reason, or simply do not want to deal with BAMs, this is one the the better alternatives at your level.
At level 26, you become eligible to run Sinestral Manor. Much like the last checkpoint, this dungeon is the best source for quick levels from mobs and repeatable quests obtained therein that can be turned in just outside of the dungeon entrance. Again, run this until you are no longer eligible to do so which would be around level 32. Remember that decently decked out dps can solo the instance to net enormous amounts of experience.
Refer to the image of the alternative area above. This area has numerous Fimbrillisks that are quite easy to dispatch. These are your best bet for large and fast XP. It’s another popular spot for mob grinders, but it will never run out of BAMs for everyone trying to farm there. Again, to get to Camp Retribution the fastest route, travel through the Northern entrance of Popolion.
Just North of Popolion is quite a large encampment of various mobs that are decently dense. These could be a nice, albeit a bit slower alternative, to BAM killing. Much like earlier alternatives, there will most likely be no real reason to farm these mobs. Remember, at this point in leveling, areas have many channels and there usually won’t be any issue with external interference.
Of course this guide only gets you to level 30, there’s still so much more game to go! Stay tuned as we release parts 2 and 3 later on in the week. Have any other tips for leveling through TERA in a hurry? Leave them in the comments below.
